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Pelops (son of Tantalus)
Pelops was a son of Tantalus, king of Tantalis, and Dione, a daughter of Atlas. He was a descendant of Zeus, Atlas and the sea goddess Plouto. History Pelops was said to either be a Phrygian, causing him to be banished from Sipylus by Ilus; Paphlagonian, Eneteian, or a native Greek, from Olenos in Achaia. Some, further, call him an Arcadian, and state that by a stratagem he slew the Arcadian king Stymphalus, and scattered about the limbs of his body which he had cut to pieces. In any case, Pelops was a favourite of Poseidon. Tantalus, a favourite of the gods, it is said, once invited them to a repast, and on that occasion he slaughtered Pelops, and had his body boiled him and set a plate of his flesh before them that they might eat it. But the immortal gods, knowing what it was, did not touch it; Demeter alone being absorbed by her grief about her lost daughter, consumed the shoulder of Pelops. Hereupon the gods ordered Hermes to put the limbs of Pelops into a cauldron, and thereby restore to him his life and former appearance. When the process was over, Clotho took him out of the cauldron, and as the shoulder consumed by Demeter was wanting, Demeter supplied its place by one made of ivory. Pelops spent some time with the gods. Pelops became the King of Pisa, and from him the great southern peninsula of Greece was believed to have derived its name Peloponnesus; the nine small islands, moreover, which were situated off the Troezenian coast, opposite Methana, are said to have been called after hint the Pelopian islands. As an oracle had declared to King Oenomaus of Pisa that he should be killed by his son-in-law, he refused giving his fair daughter Hippodameia in marriage to any one. Many suitors however, appearing, Oenomnaus declared that he would give her to the one who could conquer him in the chariot-race, but that he should kill those that should be conquered by him. Among other suitors was Pelops himself, but when he saw the heads of his conquered predecessors stuck up above the door of Oenomaus, he was seized with fear, and endeavoured to gain the favour of Myrtilus, the chiarioteer of Oenomaus, promising him half the kingdom if he would assist him in gaining Hippodameia. Myrtilus agreed, and did not properly fasten the wheels to the chariot of Oenomaus. so that he might be upset during the race. The plan succeeded, and Oenomans dying pronounced a curse upon Myrtilus. When Pelops returned home with Hippodameia and Myrtilus, he resolved to throw the latter into the sea. As Myrtilus sank, he cursed Pelops and his whole race. By his wife Hippodameia, he became the father of Atreus, Thyestes, Dias, Cynosurus, Corinthus, Hippalmus, Hippalcmus, Hippasus, Cleon, Argeius, Alcathus, Aelius, Pittheus, Troezen, Nicippe, Lysidice and Pleisthenes By Axioche or the nymph Danais he is said to have been the father of Chrysippus. In order to atone for the murder of Myrtilus, Pelops founded the first temple of Hermes in Peloponnesus, and he also erected a monument to the unsuccessful suitors of Hippodameia, at which an annual sacrifice was offered to them. When Pelops had gained possession of Hippodameia, he went with her to Pisa in Elis, and soon also made himself master of Olympia, where he restored the Olympian games with greater splendour than they had ever had before. He received his sceptre from Hermes and bequeathed it to Atreus. Chrysippus, who was the favourite of his father, roused the envy of his brothers, who in concert with Hippodameia, prevailed upon the two eldest among them, Atreus and Thyestes, to kill Chrysippus. They accomplished their crime, and threw the body of their murdered brother into a well. Pelops, who suspected his sons of the murder, expelled them from the country, and they dispersed all over Peloponnesus. Hippodameia, dreading the anger of her husband, fled to Midea in Argolis. from whence her remains were afterwards conveyed by Pelops, at the command of an oracle, to Olympia. Some state that Hippodameia took her own life. She had a sanctuary at Olympia in the grove Altis, to which women alone had access, and in the race course at Olympia there was a bronze statue of her. While the Greeks were engaged in the Trojan War, they were informed by an oracle, that the city could not be taken, unless one of the bones of Pelops were brought from Elis to Troas. The shoulder bone accordingly was fetched from Letrina or Pisa, but was lost together with the ship in which it was carried, off the coast of Euboea. Many years afterwards it was dragged up from the bottom of the sea by a fisherman, Demarmenus of Eretria, who concealed it in the sand, and then consulted the Delphic oracle about it. At Delphi he met ambassadors of the Eleians, who had come to consult the oracle respecting a plague, which was raging in their country. The Pythia requested Demarmenus to give the shoulder bone of Pelops to the Eleians. This was done accordingly, and the Eleians appointed Demarmenus to guard the venerable relic. According to some the Palladium was made of the bones of Pelops. Pelops was honoured at Olympia above all other heroes. His tomb with an iron sarcophagus existed on the banks of the Alpheius, not far from the temple of Artemis near Pisa; and every year the ephebi there scourged themselves, shedding their blood as a funeral sacrifice to the hero. The spot on which his sanctuary (Pelopion) stood in the grove Altis, was said to have been dedicated by Heracles, who also offered to him the first sacrifices. The magistrates of the Eleians likewise offered to him there an annual sacrifice, consisting of a black ram, with special ceremonies. His chariot was shown in the temple of Demeter at Phlius, and his sword in the treasury of the Sicyonians at Olympia. His descendants, the Pelopidae, as a mark of their origin, were believed to have one shoulder as white as ivory. Appearance Personality Capabilities Category:Mortals Category:Kings Category:Descendants Category:Children of Tantalus Category:Pelops